robert Charrette - Arthur 02 - A King Beneath the Mountain (39 page)

"Thank you," she said when they'd finished their lovemaking. He wasn't sure what to say, so he just hugged her hard. She hugged back. They lay quietly in each other's arms. For all his tiredness, John couldn't sleep. Sue was not so burdened; it wasn't long before she was drawing the deep breaths of a restful slumber. In frustration, John opened his eyes.

Gorshin crouched at the foot of the mattress.

For a moment he locked eyes with the batwinged creature. How long had it been there? What did it want? Granite-hued lips wrinkled up, revealing sharp teeth. Was that a snarl, or a smile?

"Hee waants taaw'k you," Gorshin grated.

John didn't need to ask who the "he" was.

Talking with Bennett wasn't the first thing in his queue, but he wasn't sleeping anyway.

Slipping his arm from under Sue's head without waking her, John rose from the bed. Gorshin's eyes glittered in the gathering dusk. The lizard-ape's stare was unremitting; John grabbed one of the ratty blankets and covered Sue. Gorshin didn't bat an eyelid; it continued to watch patiently as he scavenged up his clothes. At least, John guessed that the lizard-ape was patient: its expression remained still and it didn't fidget.

Bennett was sitting on a low rail that ran along the side of one of the machines. He no longer wore his elf-prince garb; instead he was dressed much as he had been when John had first met him: a trench coat over a standard business suit. He even wore his human guise.

Bennett rose as John approached; his nostrils flared once as if taking in a scent. A half smile curled on his lips. "Enjoy yourself?"

What business was it of his? "You wanted to talk to me. I'd assumed it wasn't about my personal business."

"If your business wasn't personal, what would make it your business?"

"I'm not in the mood for your riddles." John didn't like having Bennett here, and wanted him gone. "Didn't you say that you needed me for some sort of pressing problem?"

"There is a danger to someone you know."

"My mother?"

"Marianne Reddy, you mean."

"You know who I mean."

"If she is in danger, I know nothing of it."

"I'm getting tired of this. Why don't you just tell me what you want?"

"First tell me how you came to be in the dwarves' domain."

What did that have to do with anything? "They came here and got me."

"Did they demonstrate that they knew who you were?"

"Wilson knew my name, if that's what you mean."

"This Wilson knew your name, and came here, and just asked, and you went? Voluntarily?"

"He did have a message from Bear, asking me to go with him."

Bennett shook his head. "And you naturally assumed that Artos had really sent him."

"It seemed reasonable."

"After what happened when last you saw him? I think not."

John was surprised at how much Bennett's scorn hurt. What did he care what the damned elf thought? "All right, so I thought it was odd. What difference does it make?"

"Much. And none." Bennett shrugged. "I know that you are woefully undereducated in matters of your heritage, but I had thought you more intelligent."

"Look, let's get one thing straight," John snapped. "I don't care what you think!"

Bennett looked at John out of the corners of his eyes. "Don't you?"

"No."

"Very well, Jack. If you say so."

"What do you care why I went with Wilson? Since when did it matter to you why I did
anything?"

"I am your father, Jack."

"So you say. It's not what my
mother
says."

"Forget Marianne Reddy. She is no longer a part of your life."

"What do you mean by that?" What did he know?

"I mean that now that you know your true heritage, you have no need to rely on the fiction in which you were reared. Living in the past can be very dangerous, especially to elves. I'd rather not see you fall into that trap."

"Oh? What sort of trap would you want me to fall into? Yours?"

"I am not trying to trap you. But I had begun to fear that the dwarves had. They are not your friends, Jack. They are, in fact, long-standing enemies of our blood. It's always been that way. Remember how they tortured Harry, and put a-trans-mitter on him to follow us to the otherworld?"

That wasn't how John remembered it. "I thought that was Mitsutomo's doing."

"So did Mitsutomo. Oh, to be sure, there were those in the corporation who were willing partners in the venture; but they were dupes, as well. In the end, it was the dwarves who instigated the attempts to kill Artos."

"Don't be ridiculous. The dwarves have an old friendship with Bear. They want to help him."

"You think they were helping him? Not to disparage your facility with electronics, but why do you think that it was so easy for you to rouse Artos, once they weren't around to
help?"

"Why? What did they have to gain?"

"Caliburn, perhaps."

"But only Bear can use it."

"Don't believe everything you read," Bennett said warn-ingly. "But they need not be able to use the talisman, to desire it. Their purpose might simply be to keep Caliburn from the hands of those who
can
use it. The dwarves are driven in ways you and I will never understand. They are magic-dead; that is a fact. They don't want anyone to have magic."

"Why's that a problem? Lots of people want some things and don't want other things. If they don't want magic, that's okay. They don't have to have any." "They are not a tolerant folk. They have a tendency to make their problems into other people's problems."

John tried to dismiss Bennett's bigotry with a wave of his hand.

"You can't dismiss the problem so easily," the elf insisted. "The dwarves couldn't have magic if they wanted it. It is a flaw in their kind that has warped their view of the way things should be. They have always striven to keep the magic bottled up. Nothing would make them happier than to see our realm permanently separated from the sunlit world."

"Might not be such a bad idea."

"You're very wrong, Jack. Magic is the hope of the world. Both worlds. The dwarves are too stupid to see the truth."

"Maybe they don't think it is the truth."

"I'm quite sure they don't. However, no amount of thought or desire can change the truth, Jack. Just as no amount of self-delusion can change the fact that they were using you for their own purposes."

"Like nobody's ever done
that
before," John said, staring accusingly at Bennett.

"Jack, I didn't come to get you for selfish reasons."

"I'll just bet."

"I understand your hostility. There's so much you don't understand, and there isn't time right now to explain it all to you."

That riff again. "Will there ever be a right time?"

Bennett ignored his question. "Do you remember that I said there was a danger?"

"So we're finally getting around to what you want. Took you long enough. Just remember something I said—I'm not going to kill anyone for you."

"I am quite content to let you make the decision as to whether there will be any killing." A pause. "Do you recall Dr. Elizabeth Spae?"

Of course he did. She was one of the two foreign secret service agents who had gone with them to the otherworld. She'd been a little standoffish, but okay for an old lady. John had kind of liked her.

"The danger that is loose in the sunlit world threatens her. A thing, a deadly creature, has set its sights on her. She's in clanger, and she needs your help."

"Is this a real threat or did you set it up?"

"This abomination is nothing of my doing," Bennett said earnestly.

John believed him; there was a loathing in the elf's tone that was too deep to be faked. "What can I do about it that you can't? Or her, for that matter? Isn't she a mage? I have trouble lighting a candle with magic." Another thought occurred to him. "If you know all about this threat, why don't you go help her yourself?"

"Artos has poisoned her against me. I fear that she will not believe what I tell her."

"I guess some people aren't too stupid to see the truth."

"Your attitude is not helpful, Jack. I had hoped that you would be concerned enough for her to tell her of the danger. She will trust you. She will believe you, and she will accept your help."

"I don't even know what this danger is."

"I will tell you."

"I don't know ..."

"Are you going to turn aside and allow her to be killed?"

Against John's better judgment, Bennett's "responsibility" trip was getting to Mm. But there were so many questions. "How do you know about this? How do you know this what-ever-it-is is going after Dr. Spae?"

"Will you let her die, knowing that you could have warned her?"

"You didn't answer my questions."

"There may not be enough time to save her if you continue to dither."

There had to be deceit somewhere in what Bennett was doing, but John didn't have enough data even to guess at what. "Why are you doing this?"

"Whether you believe it or not, I like Dr. Spae," Bennett said evenly. "I would not like to see her hurt."

It sounded honest, real. With Bennett momentarily vulnerable, John couldn't resist the shot. "Got a use for her in mind?"

"Jack, I don't use everyone I meet."

"No? I guess you just save your manipulations for family."

Bennett looked stern. "Will you warn her?"

"How? I don't have any idea where she is."

"I do."

"Then
you
warn her."

"She won't believe me. Will you let her die?"

Could taking a warning to the doctor be a bad thing? At the very least Bennett would stop pestering him about it. If the threat was real, he might actually save Dr. Spae.

"All right," he said, resolving to tell the doctor exactly where the information came from. He'd let her decide whether or not to believe it.

"You've made a good decision, Jack." The air behind Bennett began to sparkle with a rainbow shine. Bennett held out his hand. "Come. I will take you to her."

"Now?"

"Now. Time grows short. I'll tell you about Quetzal on the way."

John took the offered hand. The tingle of the transition to the otherworld was beginning to feel familiar.

CHAPTER

21

Quetzal floated among the stars, basking in their radiance. They were magnificent in their multitudes, uplifting in their brilliance. Would that he could see them as easily with his bodily eyes as with his astral vision. He hadn't expected that the conditions necessary to the opening of the way would rob him of the stars.

Things would be different after the change.

There were stars below him as well. Not real stars, dimmer than real stars, but sparkling nonetheless. The apparent stars were flickerings of power, signs that magic was loose upon the earth.

Most of the false, earthbound stars marked where some human stood upon the land and touched the cosmic energies. The intensity of the light varied according to how the power was being manipulated as well as the general ability of the individual. The strongest manipulators were always visible, to some degree, to the trained astral eye; mastery of the mysteries marked the master as a beacon does a distant coast.

It was a sparse starscape.

He noted the presence of the local followers. There were other practitioners as well, but Quetzal observed only a single significant point: the mage he'd first sensed as she flew over the ocean. The magical unsophistication of the new age was disappointing; where was the pleasure at being the most accomplished among such a sorry lot?

There were other luminaries among the lamps of the earth. The largest of them marked places of power, convergences of thaumaturgic energy and the etherometric lines. Such places were called
lucernae
by this era's students of the Great Art closest to his own tradition. Quetzal knew the energy loci under many names, preferring some of the others to the Latin name; he would refer to them as
lucernae
from now on, as an exercise in commonality. Commonality was one of Lu-ciferius's favorite magical laws—unsurprising given his love for words; the law stated that the magic of naming and compulsion worked better when those involved shared a language—quite similar to the principle behind True Names and, as he had often argued with Luciferius, possibly making Commonality merely a corollary of
that
law. But this was a time for harmony, not argument; and under Commonality, Quetzal's harmony with the current era would be improved by using Latin. A not insignificant side effect would be an increase in his relative power with regard to the followers— other magicians descended from his tradition as well.

Such considerations were best undertaken at other times; the astral state tended to lead one into a wandering state of mind. He returned his thoughts to his purpose and fell again to observing energies of the astral landscape.